


Offline Life

by Deadlife_Series



Category: Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Freedom, Gen, Government Experimentation, Laboratories, On the Run, Pain, Presumed Dead, Unethical Experimentation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:13:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22680778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deadlife_Series/pseuds/Deadlife_Series
Summary: Twice failed, once to come online, once as an experiment.Her only wish is to be free, to be whole.How will she get there?What will she do?





	1. A sloppy beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, so I decided to write a fanfic esque story about an OC of mine. Please keep in mind that I'm not a skilled author and that English isn't my first language.

Pain…

That’s all she could feel for the longest time. 

There was no apparent reason for it, and no apparent passing of time either. 

There was only pain and the blinding lights overhead, unable to move, unable to speak.

She wasn’t alone where she was laying, there was always the sound chattering and pedes thumping all around her, and the various beeps and hums of the thing she was hooked up to. Tubes and wires stuck to her “frame”, not like it could be called that, pulsating and keeping her tied to this forsaken existence.

Laying there was quite boring, she had nothing to do, and even if she could move the wires and scientists would stop her. All she could do was hope that one day her frame would go from a pile of melted metal to something capable of movement. Ever so often someone would come and put something into one of the machines she was attached to. It was glowing and pink, that’s all she could tell, and it would be pumped into her. The pink stuff was the only pleasant thing to her, even if it stung a bit, she wanted more of it. 

And that’s exactly what she got.  
Someone came to refill the pump per the usual, but the sound it made was not. It crackled, buzzed and started pulsating with a much higher intensity than before, but she wasn’t afraid. The dose of pink liquid was far greater than any before, taking her through a back and forth between horrible pain and pure extacy.

Something else also changed: she could move, only a little, but she could move. Feeling her previously sloppy form take on something that actually resembled a bot. But just as fast as this realization hit her, the rhythmic beeping she had grown to ignore went over to one continuous tone, followed by darkness.

She was offline…

Her condition was never stable, being put on spark support and Primus knows what else for as far back as she could remember. The scenery, if you could call it that, never changed, it was only the blinding light and the occasional silhouettes. 

“Dark, too dark”she thought after rebooting.

Trying to move, she found herself in a very small space, only big enough for a little wiggling. At least she could move, which was nice. She squirmed around trying to find a way out, and managed to slide open the metal drawer. It was still dark, but there was some light, and no signs of anyone else. 

Pulling herself all the way out, she fell on the floor with a hollow sound between a splat and clank. Trying to stand, she found out with dismay that it was only possible for a few seconds, before collapsing to the floor again. Dragging herself across the floor proved to be far easier, and having the freedom to move far outweighed the negatives. This new environment was filled from wall to wall with metal drawers, marked with symbols she could barely see. 

Finding a doorway, she continued dragging herself along the hallway when a strange feeling hit her, it felt familiar, like a calling coming from down the hall. Now moving completely autonomously, she sped up until reaching a wall. It looked different from all the others, it had a panel next to a door, and she could hear someone on the other side. Desperate to get in, she hid and waited for her chance to get in. When the mech exited the room she snuck in and gazed upon the pink glow filling it. 

She reached out, letting her digits slide across the cube, it would help her.

She knew it.

A portion of her slid open, revealing a weak, pulsating light. Without hesitation she took the cube and placed it in the light, which immediately flared as she felt every part of her burn. She screamed regretting her choice, laying there as the light slowly faded along with the pain. Opening her optics, she was greeted with an actual frame. She sat up looking down at her servos and reached up to touch her faceplate. 

She felt whole.

Standing up and taking the first, wobbly steps was a joy beyond describing. “Now it’s time to get out of here” that was her only objective now, finding out about this place could come later.

The door had no passcode, and there were no signs of activity in the hallways, perfect. They were long and featureless, with doorways every couple of meters all with signs that to her had no meaning. After an eternity of just endless hallways, there was the first sign of life, a mech dragging around a large container. 

“This is my chance!” She thought, waited and got into the container. It wasn’t exactly pleasant, but it would be worth it if it meant getting out. It took awhile for it to finally stop anywhere close to an exit, and at the first chance she got, she ran.

Ran, and ran until the facility that kept her prisoner for so long was out of sight. Ecstatic over getting out, when a realization set in “No one can find out about me”, she murmured to herself, and walked into an alleyway, “I’ll be sent back there”.


	2. Who are you?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in a world you didn't know existed?  
> Who can you trust?

Time had stopped existing for her long ago, nothing ever changed and the only indications were the routine... whatever happened to her. But now that she could explore, the passage of time became obvious. 

Wandering around the alleyways was as frightening as it was exciting, all the noise coming from the crowded streets, smells that she didn’t recognize, and the colors, oh the colors. Bright neons flashing from outside the alleys, with every color on the spectrum. She wanted to get closer, to get a better look at this new environment, but alas, her fear of getting caught was far greater.

One, if not the only positive side of being stuck in that cursed place, was that at least she wouldn’t be starving. “I’m not going back…” she thought, as her tanks churned unhappily, “I’ll need to get hold of some fuel soon”. She kept wandering the narrow passages away from the heavily populated areas, moving on until she came out somewhere that looked run down, “Looks abandoned, maybe I can stay here for a while”, the place looked like a ghost town, no bots in sight.

As expected the buildings were pretty much empty, the floors and what was once furniture covered in a thick layer of dust, the walls covered in graffiti. Clearly there had been some activity here, though not recently. The fatigue hadn’t set in while walking, but as she laid down it became obvious, as moments after finding a comfortable position she slipped into recharge.

“Why are we here again?” An annoyed voice said from somewhere within the building, “I’m tellin ya, some bots been snoopin around’ere” a much deeper voice replied. The sound of footfalls echoed through the building, moving throughout rooms. “What the frag!?” the mech with the deep voice shouted, “Debug, get over’ere”. The pair looked in awe at the frame of the offline femme before them. 

“What do ya think happened?”, the deep-voiced one asked, “I don’t know! Probably an overdose or something” Debug answered dismissively, “but wait, are those…” he stepped a bit closer to the monochrome frame “... WINGS?”. He reached out a servo towards them to try investigating further, to try getting a logical answer “odd… the vents and engine seem to still be active” he mumbled to himself. “Debug, I gotta bad feelin’ bout’ this. Somethin seems off” the deep-voiced one said, trying to get his partner to leave, “Blazer, please, this needs to be investigated”, “yeah, by authorities or somethin’, why don’t we leave and forget about this”. Just as Debug was about to start arguing the monochrome femme they had assumed was offline started moving. First the wings raising and spreading, then the servos to scramble her way up, the pair stared in horrified silence as the small bot sat up and yawned sleepily. 

“What the frag…” it was said quietly, but loud enough to get her attention. Being woken up wasn’t pleasant, and she was horrified to see two mechs standing in front of her. “No. no no no, I’m not going back there…”, she pushed herself backwards until her pack met the cold wall. “This is it” she thought, “I’m going to be stuck there forever now”. Backing way further was impossible, but nonetheless when the taller of the two mechs started approaching she pushed herself back even more. “Go away. Go away! GO AWAY! I’M NOT GOING BACK!”, she started screaming and covered her helm with her servos, “go back where? Calm down I don’t even know what yer talkin' bout”, Blazer said while approaching her calmly. Still shaking, she lowered her servos just enough to see in front of her, calming a bit when seeing that the red, green and yellow mech had left some distance between them, and the shorter turquoise-shaded one, while staring directly at her, had kept even more distance.

“Who are you? What's going on?” her vocalizer was staticy and her intake burned as she started violently coughing. “Whoah, are you okay?” Blazer sporadically looked over the femme, as she coughed up energon that had been building up in her vents. Debug was as put out as Blazer, also approaching in a mild state of panic. “We should take’er with us, this kids obviously been through sumhthin”, after a second of hesitation and locking optics with the shaking femme, Debug nodded in agreement as Blazer picked her up with a bit of mild protest and they headed to their hideout.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, chapter two.  
> Originally I planned for my mysterious MC to be all on her own, but then I got the idea for Blazer and Debug. Eventually I'll be able to try setting up something emotional, also the original concept made no sense so ye.


	3. Newfound hope

“Where are they taking me?” She thought, trying to distract herself from her still irritated intake and empty tanks. They seemed just as confused as she was, and unaware of where she had come from. Where she had escaped from. “First the escape then a rude awakening and now this, what next?” Her processor was spinning with thoughts and feelings, the fear for the future, the confusion over the entire situation, the inner debate over if she could trust these two mechs.

Not a single word was spoken the entire time they walked, neither Blazer nor Debug knowing what to say, while she didn’t even dare move. They went down to the ground level of the building, Debug moved a piece of a wall revealing a staircase going down. The area was decently lit and messy, they’ve been definitely living here for a while, and from the looks of it not too well. She got placed on a bench and immediately brought her stabilizers close to her chest, resting her chin on her knees. Still shivering, though the irritation in her intake has stopped by then, being replaced by the dread of the things yet to come slowly creeping up her spinal strut.

“So, we should probably introduce ourselves. Names Blazer, and das Debug” both of them sat down in front of her, leaving a bit of distance “and you are?”. A name, yet another thing she lacked, “I… don’t have… a name” her voice has hushed, barely audible. A few seconds of silence passed, then Debug spoke bluntly “Did you run off from somewhere?”, she froze. She had no name and no understanding of what’s going on, it couldn’t be more obvious that she had run off from somewhere. “Please, I don’t want to go back there!” Plead was the only thing she could do, plead and hope that they wouldn’t take her back to that place, “I’ll do anything! Just don’t send me back!” She put her pedes on the floor, prepared for having to run again, on guard when Blazer stood up “hey, heeeeey, easy now we ain’t gonna send you anywhere. Calm down, can you say anything bout what happened to you?”.

She slowly sat back down, looking down whilst trying to think of what to say. “I… was stuck in this… place, for a long time. Everything hurt all the time, and I couldn’t move” her voice started getting shaky “then something went wrong and I fainted... then woke up somewhere dark. I could move! But not really well, until I found this pink... cube thing. I got out of that place but had to hide, if anyone saw me I’d be sent back there” her wings clattered as she continued shivering. Debug and Blazer sat in silent shock, her simple vocabulary was unmistakably that of a newly forged bot, but she had obviously been online for some time, given the recalling of being somewhere for some time. The pair looked at eachother, then at the scared femme before them. “Wait here. Blazer, we need to talk”, Debug stood up and headed towards a different room, with Blazer following just after, she partially returned to her previous curled-up position.

“So, wut do you think happened to that kid?” Blazer spoke with a hushed voice. “Well, she was obviously keps somewhere against her will, likely ever since being forged...”, Debug mostly mumbled, as was his habit when thinking “... but where?”, too many things didn’t add up, and with little to no use in asking there wasn’t much hope for figuring it out. Much to Debug’s dismay. “Would it be possible dat she was in a lab?” the question snapped Debug back to reality “huh?”, “A lab! She looks like both a flier and grounder, and offline, and she mentioned sumthin goin wrong and fainting”, neither would normally even think of something like that, but in a strange situation like this an experiment gone wrong seemed like the moth logical solution. “Well, what do we do with her?” Debug wasn’t exactly fond of the idea of another bot in their small hideout, “can’t she stay? I mean, kid’s got nowhere to go, and if she’s found it’s right back to wherever”, Debug was about to argue against Blazer’s suggestion, but looking into his optics he realized an unspoken part of the taller mech’s reasoning. “Okay… she can stay”

Sitting there was not fun, nor calming. Muffled voices came from the other room, deciding her fate. She had started to bite on one of her digits and considered escaping, but that plan was thrown out when Blazer returned to the room, Debug being nowhere in sight. “What are you going to do with me?” she asked before Blazer sat back down in front of her “well, nothin, really. Listen, if you want, you can stay with us, we’re not gonna force you”. She was a bit taken back by this, on one hand she had no idea what could happen if she stayed, but on the other… the streets weren’t a much better option. “What… would happen if I stayed?” it was best to approach cautiously, “well, you wouldn’t have to worry bout being found and taken back to… that place...” he still didn’t know what ‘that place’ was “...and we could explain some stuff you don’t know, but it’s your choice”. A few seconds passed, and she once again bit her digit and finally answered “... I’ll stay…” hoping she wouldn’t regret saying it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So headcannon: forged bots (at least on cybertron in more peaceful times) are so with a limited vocabulary and understanding of the world around them, as proven by Arcee being a former teacher in tfa 
> 
> This story will be running mostly with the same headcannons as @eve-of-halloween, because they(?) do an amazing job of explaining things in a way that makes sense (sparklings and whatnot).


End file.
